LADIES LOSE TO LEAGUE LEADERS

Pompey Ladies suffered a third successive Premier League Southern Division defeat, although they put up a fight against the league leaders.

Tottenham appear to be cruising to the title and moved another step closer to claiming the crown with a 4-1 victory at Privett Park.

But the hosts who were first to threaten, with Samantha Quayle not quite able to take advantage of an under-hit back-pass.

It was Spurs who broke the deadlock on 12 minutes, however, as they quickly broke up the pitch and Kelley Blanchflower crossed for Wendy Martin to head home.

And it was Blanchflower who then doubled the advantage following good work from Bianca Baptiste and Leah Rawle down the left.

The Blues refused to give up, though, and skipper Gemma Hillier should least have hit the target after being teed-up by Quayle.

Instead it was the visitors who scored again before the interval, with Baptiste reacting quickest when Martin’s effort was palmed away by Emily Paines.

Both sides looked to get forward at the start of the second half and Paines did well to deny Baptiste, while Katie James struck the post at the other end.

But Pompey did reduce the deficit on 54 minutes when Quayle picked out Hillier, who neatly lobbed the ball over Toni-Anne Wayne and into the net.

Tottenham reacted instantly, however, and Lucia Leon exploited a gap in the defence to fire home a precise finish and wrap up the victory.

Blues boss Jay Sadler told the club’s official YouTube channel: “There were a lot of positives for us to take from that game, although there were mistakes that led to the goals we conceded in the first half.

“We had an honest talk at the break, came out and really took the game to Tottenham. We deserved more and certainly created chances.

“It was overall very pleasing against a team that look to be the winners of our league and I can’t fault the work-rate of any of our players.

“So it’s the same story for us – we need to take our opportunities and eradicate those errors. The result didn’t completely reflect our performance.

“Now we’ve got another very difficult game against Palace, but it’s one that we think we can take a positive result from.